Biographien

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Going Solo by Roald Dahl, read by Dan Stevens. This is the second part of Roald Dahls remarkable life story, following on from Boy. When he grew up, Roald Dahl left England for Africa - and a series of dangerous adventures began. From tales of plane crashes to surviving snake bites, this is Roald Dahls extraordinary life before becoming the worlds number one storyteller.

For fans of David Sedaris, Tina Fey and Caitlin Moran comes the new book from Jenny Lawson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Let's Pretend This Never Happened...In Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson regaled readers with uproarious stories of her bizarre childhood. In her new book, Furiously Happy, she explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. And terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.As Jenny says: 'You can't experience pain without also experiencing the baffling and ridiculous moments of being fiercely, unapologetically, intensely and (above all) furiously happy.' It's a philosophy that has - quite literally - saved her life.Jenny's first book, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, was ostensibly about family, but deep down it was about celebrating your own weirdness. Furiously Happy is a book about mental illness, but under the surface it's about embracing joy in fantastic and outrageous ways. And who doesn't need a bit more of that?

Titanic Thompson is the rollicking true story of one of the most charismatic characters in twentieth-century America. Travelling only with his golf clubs, a .45 revolver, and a suitcase full of cash, this is the legendary tale of a man who was married five times to five different girls, all teenagers on their wedding day. He killed five men, though he'd say 'they'd all agree they had it coming to them'. He won and lost millions in a time when being a millionaire still really meant something. Filled with fascinating facts and famous faces - Harry Houdini, Al Capone, Lee Trevino, Arnold Rothstein and Jean Harlow all make appearances - this is a brilliant and compelling snapshot of life on the road in freewheelin' America.

The New York Times bestseller Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. Every fall, her father would pack the family into the car and they would drive across the country, in search of their next adventure. The seeds were planted: Steinem would spend much of her life on the road, as a journalist, organizer, activist, and speaker. In vivid stories that span an entire career, Steinem writes about her time on the campaign trail, from Bobby Kennedy to Hillary Clinton; her early exposure to social activism in India; organizing ground-up movements in America; the taxi drivers who were "e;vectors of modern myths"e; and the airline stewardesses who embraced feminism; and the infinite contrasts, the "e;surrealism in everyday life"e; that Steinem encountered as she travelled back and forth across the country. With the unique perspective of one of the greatest feminist icons of the 20th and 21st centuries, here is an inspiring, profound, enlightening memoir of one woman's life-long journey.

"e;The only plan right now is to kill everybody"e; Joey Jordison, drummerIgnoring every rule in the book and more besides, Slipknot are a notoriously controversial band who combine a talent for outrage with their music. Reminiscent of the outlandishness of punk, 'nu metal' has become the fastest growing area in rock, with Slipknot selling over 2 million copies of their debut album. And yet Slipknot spit, swear and risk injury night after night in their extraordinary live performances. Incredibly, their apparel of masks and boiler suits, which they refuse to remove, means that their fans still do not know what they look like. Jason Arnopp, the first British journalist to interview Slipknot face to mask, describes the transformation of the Des Moines crew into unorthodox mega stars. Featuring an introduction by the legendary Gene Simmons of Kiss, this biography will be the first published on the band either in the UK or America and will include exclusive interviews and in-depth information on the mysterious nine masked men.

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - with a new foreword by Silicon Valley legend Marc Andreessen.'For my money, a better book about Jobs than Walter Isaacson's biography' New Yorker'A fascinating reinterpretation of the Steve Jobs story' Sunday TimesWe all think we know who Steve Jobs was, what made him tick, and what made him succeed. Yet the single most important question about him has never been answered. The young, impulsive, egotistical genius was ousted in the mid-80s from the company he founded, exiled from his own kingdom and cast into the wilderness. Yet he returned a decade later to transform the ailing Apple into the most successful company the world had ever seen. How did this reckless upstart transform himself into a visionary business leader? The first comprehensive study of Jobs' career following his dismissal from Apple, written with unparalleled access and insight, BECOMING STEVE JOBS offers a startling new portrait of the most important business figure in modern history. The most intimate biography yet of Jobs, written by the journalist who knew him better than any other, BECOMING STEVE JOBS draws on recently discovered interviews that have never before seen the light of day, and answers for the first time the most pressing questions about what made this legendary business leader such a success.'Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli render a spectacular service with this book, giving fresh perspective onSteve Jobs' journey from inspiring but immature entrepreneur into an inspired and mature company-builder. Most important, they capture Jobs' resilience, his refusal to capitulate, his restless drive to stay in the game, his voracious appetite to learn-this, far more than genius, is what made him great.Becoming Steve Jobs gets the focus precisely right: not as a success story, but as a growth story. Riveting, insightful, uplifting-read it and learn!' Jim Collins, author of Good to Great'BECOMING STEVE JOBS is fantastic. After working with Steve for over 25 years, I feel this book captures with great insight the growth and complexity of a truly extraordinary person. I hope that it will be recognized as the definitive history.' Ed Catmull, President, Pixar and Disney Animation

Isaac Newton was indisputably one of the greatest scientists in history. His achievements in mathematics and physics marked the culmination of the movement that brought modern science into being. Richard Westfall's biography captures in engaging detail both his private life and scientific career, presenting a complex picture of Newton the man, and as scientist, philosopher, theologian, alchemist, public figure, President of the Royal Society, and Warden of the Royal Mint. An abridged version of his magisterial study Never at Rest (Cambridge, 1980), this concise biography makes Westfall's highly acclaimed portrait of Newton newly accessible to general readers.

For the first time, rock music icon Gregg Allman, one of the founding members of The Allman Brothers Band, tells the full story of his life and career in My Cross to Bear. No subject is taboo, as one of the true giants of rock n roll opens up about his Georgia youth, his long struggle with substance abuse, his string of bad marriages (including his brief union with superstar Cher), the tragic death of brother Duane Allman, and life on the road in one of rocks most legendary bands.

The story of Heart is a story of heart and soul and rock n roll. Since finding their love of music and performing as teenagers in Seattle, Washington, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson, have been part of the American rock music landscape. From 70s classics like Magic Man and Barracuda to chart- topping 80s ballads like Alone,and all the way up to 2012, when they will release their latest studio album, Fanatic, Heart has been thrilling their fans and producing hit after hit. In Kicking and Dreaming, the Wilsons recount their story as two sisters who have a shared over three decades on the stage, as songwriters, as musicians, and as the leaders of one of our most beloved rock bands. An intimate, honest, and a uniquely female take on the rock and roll life, readers of bestselling music memoirs like Life by Keith Richards and Steven Tylers Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? will love this quintessential music story finally told from a female perspective.

Frank Cascio was a close friend of tragic superstar Michael Jackson for more than twenty-five years. In My Friend Michael, Cascio offers a deeply personal, behind-the-scenes look at the Michael Jackson he knew. Filled with never-before-told stories and intimate details, My Friend Michael is the most candid, moving, and provocative portrait of the King of Pop to datea fair and loving portrait of a true American pop music icon and of a remarkable friendship that endured through triumph and struggle, scandal and controversy.

From veteran entertainment reporter Sam Kashner and biographer Nancy Schoenberger comes the definitive account of the greatest Hollywood love story ever toldthe romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Kashner has interviewed Elizabeth Taylor numerous times and is the only journalist given access to her extensive collection of personal letters and journals, and he and Schoenberger have also interviewed the Burton family at length, including Burtons actress daughter Kate. This is truly an authorized and singularly informed biography of these two larger-than-life stars, and of their glamorous, volatile, and audacious relationship.

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN BIOGRAPHY WINNER OF THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHYWINNER OF THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2016 The Return is at once a universal and an intensely personal tale. It is an exquisite meditation on how history and politics can bear down on an individual life. And yet Hisham Matar's memoir isn't just about the burden of the past, but the consolation of love, literature and art. It is the story of what it is to be human.Hisham Matar was nineteen when his father was kidnapped and taken to prison in Libya. He would never see him again. Twenty-two years later, the fall of Gaddafi meant he was finally able to return to his homeland. In this moving memoir, the author takes us on an illuminating journey, both physical and psychological; a journey to find his father and rediscover his country.'A beautifully-written memoir that skillfully balances a graceful guide through Libya's recent history with the author's dogged quest to find his father' Barack Obama

'Hot damn! Let us rumble, keep going and don't slow down ... let's have a little fun ...'In his much-anticipated memoir, Hunter S. Thompson looks back on a long and productive life. It is a story of crazed road trips fuelled by bourbon and black acid, of insane judges and giant porcupines, of girls, guns, explosives and, of course, bikes. He also takes on his dissolute youth in Louisville; his adventures in pornography; campaigning for local office in Aspen; and what it's like to accidentally be accused of trying to kill Jack Nicholson. Alongside this 'depraved and terrifying adventure', Hunter S. Thompson exposes the darkness at the heart of America today: a time when the 'goofy child President' and the New Dumb have taken control, and the nation thralls to Bush's War on Terror, War on Evil, War on Iraq, and even War on Fat ... a time when fear and loathing are greater than ever.

'Why do I know a few more things? Why am I so clever altogether?'Self-celebrating and self-mocking autobiographical writings from Ecce Homo, the last work iconoclastic German philosopher Nietzsche wrote before his descent into madness.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAn extraordinary insight into life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships - and the story of one woman's terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom. As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal communist regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told "e;the best on the planet"e;?Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family.

This bibulous, drug-indulgent and anarchic rock legend was born on a small farm in Tipperary, won a scholarship to Westminster, was rapidly expelled, became a rent boy, then a central figure of punk and the hugely influential star of The Pogues. MacGowan's music, innovative and powerful, is as distinctive as his chaotic, breakdown-scarred, drug and alcohol-fuelled lifestyle. MacGowan has an enormous fan-base hungry for stories of his wild behaviour, but this is also a book that celebrates this unique and charming musician, and offers insight into his remarkable perspective on this world - and the next!

First published in 1995, David Nokes' major biography of John Gay (1685-1732) was the first full-length life of Gay for over fifty years, and drew on hitherto unpublished letters. Presenting Gay as a complex character, torn between the hopes of court preferment and the assertion of literary independence, Nokes offers both a lively and accessible read for the non-specialist and a comprehensive scholarly study. Best-known for The Beggar's Opera, Gay is here revealed as a contradictory figure. Nokes argues that Gay's self-effacing and self-mocking literary persona was largely responsible for perpetuating an image of himself as a genial literary non-entity. Often cast as a neglected genius, dependent on others, he in fact left a considerable fortune after his death. Depicted by his friends as both a childlike innocent and a rakish ladies' man, he produced the most successful and subversive theatrical satire of his generation, and volumes of bestselling Fables.

Anna was four years old when Fynn, then only 16 himself, found her wandering round London's Docklands one foggy night in the 1930s. Badly neglected and abandoned by her parents, he took her home to be cared for by his own family.The impact of this extraordinary child on Fynn, his friends and the people in their neighbourhood was to be immense. Nobody who met Anna could remain the same: this intelligent, lively, precocious chatterbox had an outlook on life which completely undercut adult pretensions and illusions.Anna's influence continues today. Anyone dipping into her thought-processes falls under the spell of her luminous innocence, wisdom and intimate relationship with 'Mister God'.

The humour of self-deprecation is peculiarly English. Few people do it better than Jeremy Lewis. His first two autobiographical volumes - Playing for Time and Kindred Spirits - are being reissued in Faber Finds to coincide happily with his third volume - Grub Street Irregular - being published by HarperCollins.The second volume of Jeremy Lewis's wonderfully entertaining autobiography sees him starting out, with a mixture of diffidence and self-professed incompetence, on a career in publishing. Along the way we see him tucking into cod and chips with Jane and Geoffrey Grigson, drinking tea with Kingsley Amis and retsina with Patrick Leigh-Fermor. When reviewing this book, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson called it 'The funniest book I have ever read about publishing...this is not merely a hugely entertaining book, but an important one'. That judgment still stands.

"Du er heldig, at du har paryk, mormor" er en dagbog over et kræftforløb, der skildrer autentisk og ærligt, hvor hårdt det er og samtidig de mange glæder der er indimellem, hvor man forandrer sig, ser anderledes på livet og bliver taknemmelig over, at få lov til at være til. Endvidere at nå dertil, at man måske ikke ville have været det foruden.

Hverdagsbilleder og overraskelser. At finde sine pladser i tilværelsen med en Søborgdreng årgang 1945. Undres over forstandens og kroppens forunderlige, og selvstændige liv, som ikke altid husker at banke på hos de øverste lag af bevidstheden. Lege med hukommelsen. Opdage forskelen på hukommelse og erindring. Er det videnskaben eller troen der har svarene? Hvad er værst? Tidsspring, tankespring, og refleksioner vedrørende barndom, ungdom, manddom og alderdom. Såvel nuet som evigheden stikker næsen frem i ubevogtede øjeblikke. At søge mening og opdage det modsatte - og omvendt. At se om bag nogle af datidens og nutidens mantra. Livet set fra 5 positioner: Fra en Sølvsmedie 1962 til 1971. Fra cykelmiljøet med bevidstheden på indre rejser 1961 til 1966. Fra en værnepligtig soldats oplevelser 1967 til 1968. Fra erkendelser gennem et langs liv i forsøg på at forstå de kræfter, der skaber livets forudsætninger. Fra en opvækst i kunstens og filosofiens favntag med disse som ledestjerner og med eksistensen som alle tings gåde. Ja, og undres over, hvad livet er for en utrolig begivenhed.

Denne bog spænder meget vidt - fra mit første år på Højdevangens skole på Amager, til min tid på kostskolen og teknisk skole i Kolding. Så min tid som lærer i Folkeskolen og Efterskolen. Jeg tror ikke, du kommer til at kede dig. Rigtig god læselyst!

10 nekrologer, tidligere offentliggjort i POV International. Muhammad Ali, Leonard Cohen, Per Kirkeby.

International grassroots esports entrepreneur and opinion leader Martin Fritzen knows all about success in esports. He founded Denmarks biggest esports club and is now spearheading all grassroots esports activities at DGI, an organization with more than 6500 sports clubs. He argues that all sports clubs should offer esports activities and wants local governments and communities to support them. Martin shows in a detailed, 9 step guide, how to build a sustainable esports club and describes the benefits to the sports clubs, sponsors, brands, and in the end, to the people who love esports.

"Åndeløse af spænding løber vi opover for at få den sidste gåde løst og undersøger omhyggeligt alle huller og fordybninger i varden, hvor en beretning kunne være nedlagt. Vi er sikre på, at vi må finde noget, at vor undersøgelse af stedet strækker sig over en hel time. Hele den måde hvorpå varden er bygget, og stedet, hvor den er lagt, siger os jo, at den må have været beregnetpå en ekspeditionsmeddelelse. Et par sten er reven ud ud af dens ene sidevæg, og det kunne tyde på, at mennesker muligvis kunne have besøgt den. Men her er også spor af en ulv, og det kunne jo tænkes, at det var den, der havde leget med stenene." "Min rejsedagbog" er Knud Rasmussens bog om hans første ekspedition i Grønland i 1912-13. Sammen med Peter Freuchen rejste Knud Rasmussen tværs over indlandsisen; dens hvide ørkener og storslåede natur og mennesker.

Hvordan snører man sin bedstemor, hvorfor er fremmedsprog et farligt minefelt, den forkætrede ytringsfrihed, hvorfor sommerhuset helst skulle være uden sand, historien om en lille markmus og dens lange odyssé, kosakker fra grænseværn til folklore, grisehandel og hjemmeslagtning i 1950erne, hjemlig hygge og international højspænding, strøtanker om Rusland og Europa, forsvar for en stilfærdig folkekirke, historien om snottet, der frøs til is. Det er blot nogle af stikordene til indholdet af denne bog. Blandede bolcher, kunne man passende kalde det. Igennem 40 år var Aarhus Universitet forfatterens lære-, være- og arbejdssted. Først som studerende og dernæst som ansat. Indtil en blodprop i hjernen ved årtusindskiftet sendte ham på ufrivillig pension. Men lysten til at skrive sad stadig tilbage i den ene aktive, men delvis lammede pegefinge. Det er der blandt andet kommet denne bog ud af. Bogen indeholder de anekdoter, artikler, kronikker og anmeldelser, som forfatteren har skrevet gennem de sidste 15 år.

"Service" indeholder 8 erotiske noveller. Nogle af novellerne er egne oplevelser, andre er ren fantasi ... endnu. Novellerne varierer i tema, og der er derfor lidt for enhver smag. Men fælles for dem alle er, at de kommer til sagen. Så rigtig god (læse) lyst!

"I Bevidsthedens Centrum" er en samling af refleksioner, fanget i og under forskellige meditative fokus-sessioner, der alle har haft udgangspunkt i 5 overordnede fokuspunkter, som er: visdom, indsigt, bevidsthed, refleksion og autensitet. Formålet med samlingen er, at give en række bud på åbne refleksioner til brug i mulige meditationer. Bogens formål er, at inspirere til meditativ refleksionsarbejde, og bogens samling er ikke ment som en disciplin eller et system for, hvorledes man skal reflektere eller fokusere. Grundsynet i bogen er og tager udgangspunkt i "at enhver proces er unik" og at alle former for individuel meditation skaber refleksion.

Describes the intense rivalry - and collaboration - of the four players who created the golden era when USSR chess players dominated the world. More than 200 annotated games are included, along with personal details - many for the first time in English.